Conference Swag!

Conferences are great opportunities to learn and to network but I can’t deny that one of the things I like about them is also the variety of conference swag. Biomedical and biotechnology companies give out a lot of quality office supplies and other knick-knacks and I’ve found that with a few well-placed stickers, this stuff can look quite cute and pretty too. 

Before...

After! Of course, their original purpose of advertising for the company is lost but...oh well. ;)

This was one of my favorite notebooks. Doesn't it have a lululemon inspirational feel?

Really, this was the only word missing. :)

Upcycled Colouring books

I found several half-completed colouring books in my basement a while back. My pack rat tendencies warred with my purging tendencies. It seemed like such a shame to just throw everything out when there were so many pages which were untouched and in good shape. Then Pinterest, yet again, came to the rescue. I came across this pin for colouring pages stationary. I thought it was a neat way to transform these pages.

The pictures actually lend themselves very nicely to envelopes.

To go with the kiddy theme, I made cards out of construction paper to match. I also took the cover of the book and made an extra envelope.

There were several pages worth of stickers in the book. I punched them all out and placed them in the envelop which I made from the cover.

It's almost like a gift set!

Okay, if I am honest with myself, even though I made this stationary set, I still don't really have anything to do with it. Maybe I'll give it away as a gift. I wish I could sell it on Etsy but the images are copyrighted so I can't. Ah well...I'm sure it will come in handy some day.

Jazzed Up Shopping Bags

I was cleaning my room the other day when I came across some paper shopping bags. I have always thought that the bags from clothing stores would make great gift bags if it weren’t for the big logos splashed across them.

(As much as I like Jacob, it’s not what I want to have on the bag unless the gift is actually from Jacob.)

Today, I happened to have some construction paper and glue handy and so I thought to work a little DIY magic and find cute ways to cover up shopping bag logos. Not bad, eh? Your next gift may just come in this.  J

A Little Piece of DNA

This was taken with my iPad camera. Unfortunately, the quality is lacking. 

This week's craft was small, quick and nerdy. I was given a brand new USB by the IT department and I felt that it needed a little something to jazz it up. Since I work in the field of genetics, a chromosome was a natural choice for a charm. A straightened paperclip, a few beads, a length of thread and voila! Can you figure out which chromosome it is? (The level of resolution is 300 and yes, the bands are accurate...relatively.)

Paint Chip Notebooks

I do not think there is a crafter out there who can resist the colourful lure of paint chips. All those vivid colours with evocative names like ‘Black Apple’ and ‘Celestial Sun’ – they are eye candy in the hardware store.

Anyone who knows me will also know that I have a great love of blank notebooks. (I have more notebooks then I have ideas to fill them. Clearly, that just means…I need more ideas :P) That is why, when I came across this cute idea on Pinterest, I just had to make it. It marries two of my favorite things!

They are so easy to make and conveniently, I happened to have a stack of paper scraps which were the perfect size lying around my room. I had originally just clipped the papers together with a bull clip and were using them as a scrap pad that way but now, the note pads are far more attractive. I can easily slip one of these in my purse for those earth-shattering, mind-boggling ideas I get on the go.  

I made two different sizes based on the paint chips I had on hand.

The paper stacks were too thick for a staple to go through (no matter how much I tried...)

In the end, I ended up sewing the pages together. A little more work but it holds together beautifully and also lies flat when opened.

Lily-of-the-Grunge

My father was the one who initially taught me how to fold origami. I can still remember waiting impatiently while he folded me yet another paper basket so I could pretend to go on a picnic. I gradually learned to make paper fox puppets, mail boxes, whales and swans out of scrap paper. As I grew older, I started attempting more complicated patterns like scorpions and dinosaurs but in recent years, I have mainly been interested in making origami flowers.

Paper flowers are versatile as decorations and crafting embellishments. I have been wowed by elaborate Oribana flower arrangements and have been tempted to make my own. Lately, time has been my enemy for this ambition but because I had a few minutes to spare today, I thought I would make a start.

I was surprised by this lily-of-the-grunge-look that I managed to achieve by gluing the flowers on the ends of some straightened paper clips and putting the whole ensemble in a can. I plan on wrapping the wire in floral tape later on, cutting out leaves and creating a full bouquet. For now, I will enjoy this blooms-in-a-concrete-jungle feel.

A close up so you can see all that lovely detail in standard printer paper. : )

There is almost a light-from-heaven-upon-Easter-lilies effect in this shot. I thought it looked interesting.

Album of Scraps

Last week, I had a crafting session over at a friend’s house. She is a serious album and card maker and has a dizzying variety of cardstock, paperstock, envelopes, stamp sets, ribbons, washi tape, stickers and crafting tools. She even has a dedicated craft room! (I was so jealous.) I was fascinated by just the pieces left over in her scrap box and rummaged through it all afternoon. By the end of our session, I ended up making a notebook cover (which I will feature another day – I still need to sew in the pages) as well as this cute little album. These are all discarded papers from my friend’s scrap box, trimmed to size and glued together. The washi tape finishes everything off just perfectly. 

I was waffling about whether or not to add a strip of washi tape on the spine. Perendie said to go for it and she was right.

There was no coordination of colours - I just cut and glued whatever was in the  box in a random order. 

It's a small thing, measuring only 6.5 x 9.5 cm. Good for stickers, wallet sized photos and short notes. 

Just One Bite...

Several weeks ago, I was picking up the bulletin inserts left on the seats after church service. The backs of the sheets were blank so I thought it seemed like such a waste to just throw them out. The vivid colour reminded me of a bright green apple so this design was inevitable. Mmm… crisp, tart and delicious.

Front

Back

Top

Dimensions: 8.3 (from base to tip of stem) x 6.5 x 6.5 cm

Materials: neon green printer paper (recycled bulletin insert), brown cardstock, tan cardstock, dark green cardstock

Tools: knife, scissors, white glue, gluestick

Time to make: 3 hours

Twinkle, twinkle little star...

Cutting paper strips can be very tedious. I would much rather have someone or something else do it for me. Hunting through my basement, I found a wonderful old paper shredder which cut paper into even, thin strips. Perhaps not the best for paranoid people’s confidential documents (a really patient person could probably slowly piece the papers back together) but great for cutting star paper. Of course that’s only if you are okay with making tiny stars. A bit challenging and quite fiddly but very cute.

Foil paper can end up getting a stressed look when handled a lot.  Not crisp but the look has a charm of its own. 

I made these from floral wrapping paper from a present that I had given to someone. He thought I did such a nice job with wrapping that he was careful not to tear the paper and then he gave the paper back to me to wrap something else.
: P

Elephants and bunnies were the original pattern of this baby-shower-type wrapping paper. Too bad  you can't really tell now that it has been made into stars.

Dimensions: ~ 1cm wide

Materials: assorted wrapping paper

Tools: paper shredder

Time to make: Length of several movies…though I won’t tell you which ones ; )